Snip
by DragonMaster65
Summary: [12 Days of Ficmas] When you're ten, bored in class, and it's wintertime there's really only one thing left to do: cut out some snowflakes. Even when the nerd behind you doesn't like it. [Eric & Tris - friendship] [Oneshot]


**_A/N:_** **Just some fluffy, pre-pre-** _ **pre**_ **Divergent schoolhouse interaction. Enjoy!**

 **Prompt: I'm absentmindedly making snowflakes in class and you're the nerd who can't quit glaring at me every time you hear my scissors**

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 _Snickt!_

It was silent reading time - the most _boring_ part of class - and Ms. Medlenn had only assigned two stupid pages to go over. It was misery reading a story two pages at a time, but that was all the teachers seemed to have energy for as soon as the Chicago winter took hold.

I'd complained to my mother about it after dinner last night, and she'd suggested I find something else to do while waiting for everyone else to finish. Kicking my feet around and flipping through the ending of the story for the zillionth time sure wasn't any fun. But cutting out more snowflakes for my cubby at school, well that was constructive wasn't it? They don't call it _construction paper_ for no reason.

 _Snip! Snap!_

Finding a place for all the little shapes that I cut out had been a challenge at first. Then I remembered that my pencil case could have the lid snapped on and off. Armed with my art class scissors and my makeshift tray I had no problem working quietly under my desk.

 _Snickt!_

Someone huffed behind me. Twisting my head around, I felt a pout settle on my lips. Grey eyes locked with mine. The blue jacket told me everything that I needed to know about the kid even if the past four months of being in class hadn't. Erudites were such stuckups. Eric was no exception, even if he was in the same class as a bunch of fourth and fifth years instead of his own sixth years.

"What?" I hissed across the aisle. He pantomimed cutting with his fingers before jabbing them at me.

"Stop that," Eric grumbled.

I lifted my scissors and snipped them a few times. His frown creased deeper. "Why?" I bandied back. Checking that Ms. Medlenn still was up at her desk had me miss half of his over-the-top motion. All I caught was him flipping through his book with vicious determination while he gestured with the other hand.

"I already read it!"

"What?"

I eyed the front of the class carefully. Ms. Medlenn was nose-deep in her own book. I dropped my scissors and half-finished snowflake into my pencil box top, and with a final glance over my shoulder I darted down the aisle to the empty seat behind Eric.

"I said," I repeated, "I already read it. So stop yellin' at me for not reading it again."

He didn't move to face me, his arms crossed haughtily over his chest. "You could _finish_ the whole thing."

My face twisted as I once again pulled my trusty snowflake-making scissors out. "Why would I do that? It's a boring ending. They find the dog, but he's all wild now cause it's been so long. So bleh," I said. Each new snip I took out of the paper had Eric twitching. When I noticed, I brought the snowflake right by his ear just to see how he'd react.

He finally whirled around in his chair. "Well, so what! You're supposed to be reading. Not _that_." His voice was barely a whisper now. He would probably get us caught soon if he kept it up and I shushed him.

My snowflake was done - overdone, really. There's hardly any paper left on the thing. I fished out the tiny roll of yarn that my mom gave me from her stash and _snip_ enough to make a loop. "What's wrong with snowflakes?" I whispered.

"We're supposed to be reading" was his insistent reply.

I rolled my eyes. It was more effective if he could see me doing it, but whenever Caleb did it to me I would get so angry. "But you're done reading. So make a snowflake or shut up. I'm not bothering anyone," I hissed.

He grumbled something under his breath and shuffled his arms to try and cross them more. I finished tying the knot on my yarn hanger and picked up a new piece of paper. This time it was blue. I folded it carefully in half, in half, in half until I had the right sized triangle to start cutting. My first few hadn't been as nice.

Eric turned around and I was ready for him to do something stupid, like knock my pencil box top over or finally tell on me to Ms. Medlenn. Instead, he jabbed one finger at the little pile of finished snowflakes that I had. "Can you show me how to make that one?" he mumbled.

 _Snip!_

He didn't flinch at that cut. I guess he was done being annoyed by the sound now that he had realized how stupid he had been. I shrugged and continued cutting away at the blue future snowflake. "Could. But I won't," I replied.

His face fell. He'd really hoped that I would just forget about him being a jerk that quickly and help him out. "Why not?" he asked.

I stuck my tongue out and answered, "Because."

His blonde hair was back in my face as he turned to the front again. After a few seconds of grumbling again, I heard a faint "sorry" coming from his direction.

One furtive eye stole a glance at me. I tipped my head and mouthed in reply, "What?"

His shoulders puffed up as he fumed in his chair. But just as quickly, Eric deflated and said as loudly as he could while still whispering, "I'm _sorry,_ Tris."

It felt good. Hearing him say that after being such a butt the whole time. "M'kay," I replied. A few more cuts and my blue snowflake was all set. Eric's eyes were on me as I carefully unfolded it to check the final design and put on its hanger. After adding it to the done pile, I took out two more pieces of paper.

"Here," I said quietly. "Practice on these. I can show you at lunch how to do the other one. It takes a bunch'a folding and unfolding different parts. But I gotta get back to my spot. Looks like everyone's done."

After slipping out from my borrowed chair I hopped back to my seat just in time for Ms. Medlenn to _finally_ close her own book. She called for everyone's attention as she picked one of the front row kids to recap what the section had been about. I smiled when I heard underneath Will's answer the quiet sound of paper getting cut.

 _Snickt!_

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 **A/N: Day 3 of the "12 Days of Ficmas!" This is a shortfic event that I'm running on my profile leading up to Xmas 2018. There are fics from multiple fandoms, so please check out my profile for more!**


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